It is day 8 at #OccupyWallStreet, and as similar protests spring up nationwide in America the New York Times finally mentioned us. Did the give us the "fair and balanced" treatment that it has given the teabaggers? No. Instead, #OccupyWallStreet gets disparaged and cast in a negative light for being unorganized. Pathetic. This reminds me of the constant drumbeat the NYT had for the war in Iraq. They are not reporting the news, they are crafting propaganda, pro Wall Street propaganda.
Just look.
Most of those entrenched in Zuccotti Park had indeed traveled from somewhere else; they had come from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Missouri, Texas and so on with drums, horns, tambourines and, in the instance of one young man, a knee-length burlap vest, fur hat, ski goggles and tiny plastic baby dolls applied to the tips of his fingers.
Plagiarizing Stephen Colbert. Lazy journalism at it's most insipid.
Here's more.
Having discerned the intellectual vacuum, Chris Spiech, an unemployed 26-year-old from New Jersey, arrived on Thursday with the hope of indoctrinating his peers in the lessons of Austrian economics, Milton Friedman and Ron Paul. “I want to abolish the Federal Reserve,” he said.
Pathetic. They find the one guy at an anti Wall Street protest to make it sound like a full endorsement of the Shock Doctrine style corporatism that has caused our economy to crash, exactly what #OccupyWallStreet is protesting.
Read the whole NYT piece if you like, and then compare it to this report by mediamatters.org on the New York Times uber-favorable coverage of the teabaggers.
I'm getting the feeling that if Tea Party conventioneers told the Times' Kate Zernike that the earth was flat she'd run with it.
~snip~
Now in a follow-up piece, Zernike writes [emphasis added]:
By Christmas, he told his wife that what he wanted was a ticket to the Tea Party Convention. When she gave it to him, she said she would go along, but only incognito, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
“Because of Nancy Pelosi calling people who believe in the Tea Party movement Nazis,” she explained. “My grandfather’s family, as Polish Jews, escaped Nazism. To call us Nazis is an abomination.”
Fact: Nancy Pelosi never called Tea Party supporters "Nazis." Period. But the Times quotes a conservative making that slanderous claim. The Times treats the outlandish allegation as fact.
(Updated to reflect that the text provided by Zernike was not her writing, but her transcription of a conversation with a teabagger ad verbatim. I apologize for the confusion, as I did not edit this post very well before publishing, but my point in mentioning it is that when it comes to covering teabaggers the corporate shills at the Times is not interested in fact checking, just selling the narrative, whereas when it comes to the left, well, you get the point.
Nothing sums up the utter failure of the corporate media to inform America like this. Marginalize the left, transcribe ad verbatim and normalize talking points from the right. Absolutely pathetic.
Meanwhile, the people of #OccupyWallStreet was busy holding down the fort and disrupting an auction for millionaires at union busting, scab employing.
http://mediamatters.org/...
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET supporters are appalled at the persistent attack on workers rights. We support the right of the workers to collectively bargain. Sotheby's wants all new hires to have no collective bargaining rights, no health benefits and no job security. After locking out their unionized work force, Sotheby's continues to operate using scabs and a non-union subcontractor. Sotheby's Art Auctions epitomize the disconnect of the extremely wealthy from the rest of us. Sotheby's Art Auctions are a sanctuary for the financial elite; where hedge fund managers & wealthy bankers bid millions of dollars for art objects; while the rest of us struggle to put food on the table because of their actions. These are the same financial elite who were bailed out in their moment of need and now refuse to pay their fair share in taxes. Many of these Hedge Fund Managers still pay a nominal tax rate compared with the average worker. That is our money! End the greed & expose the disconnect!
Courtesy of CrooksandLiars.com
But that isn't important to the NYT. They'd rather report on the topless hippy chick and how crazy those anti corporate greed protestors look.
Meanwhile, twitter has twice blocked the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet from tending in America. Because when democratic uprisings, even small, start overseas it is news, but when it happens in our own backyard we should ignore it totally or ridicule it, unless it is a bunch of pro war, anti government teabaggers who support the corporate agenda.
Fail.
More video and news below the fold.
As I left the protests on day 7 spirits were still high. The rain had let up and the crowd was beginning to swell again. I look forward to going back after I publish this post, but first here is some more youtube videos of the protests from today.
And one of my favorites, #OccupyWallStreet goes shopping!
I ran into fellow kossack Ollie Garchey at the protests, and as the voice in the above video says, I agree, "this is fucking awesome." The whole world is watching, and despite the utter failings of the American media the word is spreading among the youth and disenfranchised of America. I don't know how this ends, but it is a hell of a ride.
If you are heading down today you can contact me at ministryoftruth AT live DOT com, I'll be the guy in the Union Army hat.
This is Jesse LaGreca, reporting from the frontlines of the class war here at One Liberty Plaza, wishing peace and love to you and yours.
For more info on how to get involved, here you go.
Okay, first the links for where to find out more, and how you can help.
First, check out occupywallst.org, which is the main site for the protests, as far as I can see.
Next, if you use twitter, check out what's trending under #OccupyWallStreet and retweet it, or put in your own thoughts and comments. Indeed, the whole world is watching, and tweeting too.
If you use Facebook or other social media sites, like, follow, post about ti, whatever it takes. The more eyes the better, the more the merrier.
Next, if you would like to contribute to our media fund, follow this link at TheOther99%'s wepay.com account
There are other funds for food and other supplies, I will include links as soon as I find the most appropriate ones.
If you are looking to send other supplies, we need blankets, bottled water, first aid products and other things. If I can put together a list I will post it as well as other useful information.
Cheers
You can follow me @JesseLaGreca on twitter, and please also follow the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet and #WeAreTheOther99%
